Moog Music enters the guitar world and launches the Moog Guitar

The much-talked-about Moog Guitar will debut at Summer NAMM show 2008, booth 2030, in Nashville. The Moog Guitar is “a fantastic axe designed to be played by the best musicians in the world,” says Moog Music President Mike Adams. According to Adams, The Moog Guitar opens the guitarist to a whole new musical vocabulary: “It’s not a guitar synthesizer; not a MIDI guitar; not an effects processor,” Adams said. “The guitarist is intimately connected to The Moog Guitar because it works its magic on the strings themselves.” The whole instrument set comprises of the actual guitar with bulit-in electronics, an expression pedal and a power supply. The guitar can be used as usual with your favourite amplifier and effects connecting through the pedal which is linked to the guitar by an XLR cable (10' or 20' length). Additionally, there is a battery powered piezo output at the guitar. The first public demonstration of The Moog Guitar will be at the Moog Guitar Showcase, featuring Kenny Vaughn and Fareed Haque with Garaj Mahal. The Moog Guitar Showcase will take place at Nashville’s renowned 3rd and Lindsley on Friday, June 20 from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. The first ever Moog Guitar will be the limited edition Paul Vo Collector Edition Guitar. The AAAAA maple top guitar with a mahogany body and ebony finger board will be a much sought-after axe even without the addition of the patented Moog electronics. Each guitar will be individually signed by Moog associate and guitar inventor Paul Vo and will carry a sealed Certificate of Authenticity identifying it as the first ever Moog Guitar. The Moog Guitar offers three modes, Sustain, Mute and Controlled Sustain. In the Sustain mode, it provides infinite, powerful sustain on every string and at every fret position; Mute removes energy from the strings, resulting in a variety of staccato effects; Controlled Sustain allows the musician to play sustained, single-note or even polyphonic lines with strong sustain and effortless clarity. In this mode, the Moog Guitar sustains the notes being played while actively muting the notes not being played. “Take the powerful combination of sustain and mute…add the ability to move that power between the neck and bridge pick-ups, and suddenly you can pull both subtle and dramatic harmonic blends from the strings,” said Moog Senior Engineer Cyril Lance. The Moog Guitar’s creative power is further enhanced by the built-in Moog ladder filter. Both the harmonic blending as well as the ladder filter are controlled from the included expression pedal, according to Lance. The late Bob Moog and Adams often spoke of entering the guitar market, but it was not until Vo’s invention that Moog Music felt it had something truly innovative to bring to the guitar market. “Clearly, this guitar meets the definition of a Moog product that Bob ingrained here at Moog Music: A Moog product must be an inspiration to the creative process of making music,” Adams said.